Human Development
Adulthood: Phase of Mind-Boggling Cognitive and Physical Developments
A critical stage that will make you, who you will be for the rest of your life.
· Physical and Cognitive Development in Early Adulthood (20–40 years):
· Physical and Cognitive Development in Middle Adulthood (35–65 years):
∘ i. Crystallized intelligence
∘ ii. Fluid Intelligence
· Physical and Cognitive Development in Late Adulthood (65 and older):Have you ever thought about how your mind and body transform during the Adulthood phase? If yes, then here is a comprehensive guide on the development of physical and cognitive functions in adulthood.
As Anaïs Nin said:
“We don’t see the world as it is, we see it as we are.”
I couldn’t agree more. Why? The typical answer is: “Because everyone has different experiences and different personalities.”
And it is true to a large extent. But a more accurate scientific explanation is that as we age, we grow through different stages of life. And the most transformative and life-changing stage in Adulthood.
Let’s see how it unfolds.
Adulthood, beginning at the age of 20–21, is the longest period of our life in which we experience the peak and decline of physical, intellectual, cognitive, and emotional functions. The early and first half of middle adulthood are usually marked by increasing slope, although the second half of mid-stage adulthood and late adulthood is marked by a decline in all functionalities.
Cognitive functions reach their peak at around age 35 and then declines for the rest of the life. Adulthood being the widest stage in human life houses a vast variety of cognitive changes. Some studies even suggest that cognitive development during early adulthood is even more than in childhood. We classify adulthood into 3 main stages:
- Early Adulthood
- Middle Adulthood
- Late Adulthood
Let’s discuss these stages and changes they bring as we age:
Physical and Cognitive Development in Early Adulthood (20–40 years):
Concerning physical changes, early adulthood is less substantial but hormonal developments continue to occur. A gradual change in weight and height also transpire and cognitive functions become steady.
In adolescence, children see things as black or white but as they move into early adulthood their enhanced cognitive developments and experiences allow them to locate the gray area. In other words, they realize that things are not that simple, there is no one answer to a question and if one person is right that doesn’t mean that the other one is wrong.
They began to understand things from different perspectives and use logic building and problem-solving skills to confront a situation while expecting contradictions and other issues. A person in his 30s will not only consider what is possible but also what is practical due to experiences and information he gathered throughout the years.
At this stage, we also see if possibilities have the potential to translate into reality or not. However, in adolescence, we only used to consider the logical basis of an argument or a desire and not its practicality. Our decisions in early adulthood are more influenced by our experience, information, and knowledge rather than our impulse or some temporary desire.
People become less egocentric, develop control systems to reach the best conclusion, and become more caring and respectful toward others. And one of the prime reasons for the development of these traits is self-reflection.
Wide-scale events (Career choice, Relationships, and Self Doubt, etc.) come about during this stage and play a crucial role in modifying our cognitive functions, thinking patterns, and personality type. Career choice affects their health, friends, location, and peace of mind depending on the nature of the job.
Similarly, the majority of people get married and start a family during this period but not everyone has a successful marriage life. In America, almost 50 percent of marriages end in divorce. These negative or positive consequences then play a significant role in affecting cognitive and especially emotional functions of the brain.
Physical and Cognitive Development in Middle Adulthood (35–65 years):
In this period of life, we again began to see some discernable physical and mental changes.
As our physical features are on the decline during this interval so there are some alterations like weight gain, hearing loss, presbyopia (vision), and much more.
But one of the things that most adults are worried about when they transition into this session of their life is their looks. As the skin begins to lose its elasticity so people use anti-aging creams and middle adulthood is also followed by hair loss or hair thinning especially in males. It is also during this period that women lose their ability to re-produce (menopause).
During mid-adulthood intellectual abilities increase and decrease at the same time.
To understand this paradoxical statement, we divide intelligence into 2 main categories:
i. Crystallized intelligence
ii. Fluid Intelligence
Fluid intelligence is the potential to reason, think, and solve a problem in a very efficient way without any prior experience or knowledge. In other words, we could say that fluid intelligence is related to our basic processing skills and it starts to tail off even before mid-adulthood. Eventually, leading to the slowing down of cognitive functions like paying attention to a task and multi-tasking.
On the other hand, crystallized intelligence is based upon our knowledge, experience, emotional learnings, skills, and strategies that we have honed throughout our lifetime. This type of intelligence increase along with stages of adulthood as an adult has more exposure and experience also proved by intelligence tests.
Although it is observed that intellectual abilities tend to pump down during middle adulthood -making people unfocused, slower, and less efficient but some studies suggest that these attributes are overstated. They propose that not only does the mid-age brain retains many of the functionalities of the young age but also develop some new skills.
This is due to the ability of the mid-age brain to rewire itself easily, being less neurotic and calmer. It allows us to easily incorporate decades of experience and ideas in any thinking pattern that we generate. They are also helpful in sorting out social situations. Sherry Willis, Ph.D., of Washington University says, their research demonstrated that most mid-age adults did perform better in some of the cognitive tests than some young adults since crystallized intelligence increases with age.
In a research published in Neurology in 2007, researchers examined pilots from age 40–69 to see how well they execute flight simulators. Elderly pilots did take longer to understand the working principles of the simulator but they also performed better than the younger colleagues.
Additionally, our emotional brain also undergoes some changes in the mid-age period. Emotions are not as strong as they were during adolescence and a well know cognitive psychologist Mara Mather also suggested that in this tenure people tend to focus more on positive and less on negative things and information.
In her research, she found that the reason is their amygdala is transformed to respond less to negative stimuli and more to the positive. And this drift continues till late adulthood. It is also suggested by David Laibson, Ph.D., at Harvard University that financial intelligence also reaches its peak during mid-adulthood and that people from age 35–65 have better economic understanding. This tells us that mid-adulthood is a double-edged sword, with its charms and demerits.
Physical and Cognitive Development in Late Adulthood (65 and older):
Physical, mental, and cognitive changes that occur during late adulthood are not very pleasing. Sure, you will gain senior discounts and other privileges for senior citizens but physical changes take a toll on the body.
Variety of physiological changes like atrophy of brain and decrease is speed and strength of neural circuitry take place.
Excessive weight loss can transpire from bone mass shrinking which among women can lead to osteoporosis. Different systems in the human body such as the Respiratory and Circulatory systems become less efficient. Skin becomes dry, hair loss occurs in both genders, reaction time becomes slower, and muscle grows weaker if daily exercise routines are not followed.
Cognitive functions at this stage become very complex to interpret. But there is a noticeable decline in these functions and some researchers believe that the reason underlying this is the reduction in working memory. Response speed to different situations and conversations also decreases. Like mid-age adulthood, the decline is explicitly in fluid intelligence rather than crystallized intelligence.
In about 15% of people over age 65 (late adulthood) the cognitive decline is caused by Dementias and in the US leading cause of Dementias is Alzheimer’s disease which is an irreparable brain disorder that slowly diminishes reasoning and analytical ability and in the later stages destroys the ability to carry out the simplest of tasks. Its symptoms first appear around the age of 60.
Working memory — the ability to retain information for a small amount of time to process it — as discussed above, also decreases in late adulthood. And the reason behind this decline was explained by Robert West who proposed that working memory largely depends on the prefrontal cortex of the brain which deteriorates as we age. Using low-intensity transcranial stimulation and synchronizing rhythms in left temporal and bilateral frontal lobe areas we can conserve working memory temporarily but this is not preferable.
There is also a preconceived notion that people in their end years are very wise which in scientific terms refers to their crystallized intelligence but this is not always the case. It highly depends upon the course of action they choose to deal with different circumstances throughout their life and analyze the consequences of their actions.
So, there is no linear relationship between age and wisdom but as elder people have had more time and exposure thus can make more practical decisions. Wisdom is the ability to use common sense and good judgment in making decisions. A wise person is insightful and has knowledge that can be used to overcome obstacles they encounter in their daily lives.
Does aging bring wisdom? While living longer does gives exposure to different situations, it does not always bring wisdom. Those who have had experience helping others resolve problems in living and those who have served in leadership positions seem to have more wisdom.
So, it is age combined with a certain type of experience that brings wisdom. However, older adults generally have greater emotional wisdom or the ability to empathize with and understand others.
Adulthood is the longest and the most enriched tenure of our life. We experience sexual life, family life, make mistakes, decide on our career, and whatnot. All these factors have an impact on our logical and emotional brain and shape the way we live our life. And throughout this process our cognitive abilities, mental development, and physical potential go from its crust (max) to trough (min), symbolizing the end of life. Whether we want these changes or not is not the case in point but what matters is that we make the best out of every situation (stage) and accept the inevitable.
